Casting an old story new.

[Zootonius]

A while back, I wrote a story that, in hindsight, added an unneeded, gratuitous, incestuous element that was not needed. I'm thinking of rewriting it as a new story that removes that superfluous piece. anyone else recast an old story as a new one?

This is rhetorical, I may do it anyway. And for those wondering the story is Jogging Partners.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Never done it before (although there is one really earlier story that would fit nicely into a series I'm currently writing with a bit of polish).

Having glanced through your story and where the incest comes in Im guessing all you'd be doing would be another lesbian joggers story - which would be more of a motif than a reused plot.

 

[KeithD]

There are usually several months between when I first write a story and when it's published to the marketplace and then about three years between publishing in the marketplace and submitting to an Internet story site. At both of those "taking it up again" point the story just may be completely or partially recast. I did it to a story just today.

 

[tenyari]

Published stories no. But unpublished ones... I've rewritten a few unpublished ones when I'd finally come back to them to again.

I -AM- in process of rewriting one published one though, an old super hero genre fiction story that was a complete mess years ago. And when that happens I plan to delete the old one.

 

[Imstillfun]

I have a 11 chapter story. There were 5 sections I thought would be interesting with some changes. I rewrote those as 5 individual stories.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’ve resubmitted stories to correct major typos. As to rewriting to give an altered tale, the publishing industry calls one of those a ‘updated second edition’.

Go for it.

 

[Voboy]

I don't see the point?

It's just words. Generate more. Write something new. If your proclivities have changed, simply write a new story to reflect that change. Let your older stuff remain "older stuff."

 

[gunhilltrain]

A while back, I wrote a story that, in hindsight, added an unneeded, gratuitous, incestuous element that was not needed. I'm thinking of rewriting it as a new story that removes that superfluous piece. anyone else recast an old story as a new one?

This is rhetorical, I may do it anyway. And for those wondering the story is Jogging Partners.

There are different ways to handle this - I assume you mean on Lit only, not anything in print.

If you really want to do it (for a small minority of stories, I hope), you should give yourself at least a year to consider it. Then you could replace the old one with a new version, but use a different title. (That's a two-step process of deleting the old one and submitting the new one.) If you merely change if without a new title, no one will ever read something that old. You can even leave the old one up and publish the new one with a different title on Lit. (Believe me, no one will notice!) Or you could go to another site and publish it there.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I don't see the point?

It's just words. Generate more. Write something new. If your proclivities have changed, simply write a new story to reflect that change. Let your older stuff remain "older stuff."

That's the ideal, not the reality. As I mentioned above, I have gone back at times with the methods I described to Zootoonius. I'm happy with it, anyway.

 

[EmilyMiller]

A while back, I wrote a story that, in hindsight, added an unneeded, gratuitous, incestuous element that was not needed. I'm thinking of rewriting it as a new story that removes that superfluous piece. anyone else recast an old story as a new one?

This is rhetorical, I may do it anyway. And for those wondering the story is Jogging Partners.

I did precisely this, but it was five stories. Given they are otherwise all quasi-autobiographical (though I hid this at first), I removed the initial incest element. I thought my life wasn’t that interesting, I guess. Plus I had naively thought to shock - how little did I know?

Full story told at the end of Wanting to be Wanted (link to page 4).

Em

 

[PandemicReader8]

A while back, I wrote a story that, in hindsight, added an unneeded, gratuitous, incestuous element that was not needed. I'm thinking of rewriting it as a new story that removes that superfluous piece. anyone else recast an old story as a new one?

This is rhetorical, I may do it anyway. And for those wondering the story is Jogging Partners.

Not here. My first story is still pending... still... after four days... I need a Zantac...

But I digress.

After my publisher folded, taking my first book into bankruptcy with them, I opted to understand self publishing better. To that end I found a local writer's group and joined several of them for a number of anthologies.

The anthologies were all PNR, not my genre, but I treated it as a test and did my best. I've since looked at them and I think I can shave out "the spice", add in a better plot (romance becoming a subplot) and release them as new novellas inspired by an older short story.

My business manager says it's not problem, but had some rules that I don't have in front not me.